An event planning service should take care of everything from handling an event to creating its budget, coordinating with vendors, and more. If you want to start your own event planning service, then you’ll be responsible for managing every aspect of the event.
You may choose to specialize in a niche, such as only handling weddings or corporate events. You can also choose to do various kinds of events. You’ll need to do market research, generate new leads, and arrange every aspect of the event.
Who is an event planner?
An event planner is an individual hired to ensure that events take place smoothly and without a hitch. Event planners arrange the venue, the food and drinks, the entertainment, and more. They can even arrange for transportation, as well as accommodation, should the client ask.
Two important duties of an event planner are conducting market research and evaluating the success of events.
As an event planner, you may have to do your research regarding your industry to understand how to throw better events. Your market research can show you who your competitors are and make you informed about the standards in your industry. You can also consider doing evaluations of every event once the event is over.
Your evaluations should aim to understand how successful the event was. Ideally, all your events should make your clients happy that they refer you to others. However, in practice, you’ll find that doing event evaluations can show you where to improve regarding future events.
What kind of events do event planners arrange?
An event planner can arrange everything from weddings to birthday parties, corporate events to entertainment events. As an event planner, you can choose to specialize in a certain kind of event or do them all. Many event planners decide to specialize in certain types of events, such as weddings.
This allows them to build a reputation when it comes to that kind of event. Since an event planner is often hired through referrals, you can find yourself coming across similar sorts of work. If you organized a wedding and the client was thrilled with you, for example, they may then recommend you to the people they know. If there is a wedding coming up then, there’s a high chance that you may be hired for that event as well.
In this way, you can develop a niche that you work in. Creating a niche can be a good idea for an event planning service. There are generally five kinds of events that you can find yourself working on. These include:
- Celebrations: These include everything from weddings to birthday parties, success parties, baby showers, private events, entertainment events, and more.
- Commemorations: These happen more rarely and tend to be more significant in scale. Take, for example, the commemoration of a historical event in the city.
- Corporate events: From seminars to corporate getaways, corporate events are held throughout the year. You can also be asked to organize training programs, or work retreats, and more.
- Education: From schools to Universities, even language learning programs can host events. These can include everything from functions to educational meets.
- Promotions: These are usually for brands or entertainment entities. Examples include a launch party, organizing brand promotions, and more.
While you can work on any event that comes your way, it’s still a good idea to develop your expertise in a niche. This is as you’ll not only provide higher quality services in your niche, but you’ll also create a network of vendors and suppliers dedicated to that niche.
Developing vendor and supplier relationships
As an event planner, the success of your events will depend on your network. Events are often decided upon at the last minute, leaving you with little time to organize. If you have strong relationships with your vendors and suppliers, you can procure everything you need for your events.
The kind of vendors and suppliers you may need can change depending on the type of event you’re working on. Take, for example, how flowers are required more often at weddings than at corporate or educational events. Having the right contacts and knowing that they can provide you with the supplies you need can help you organize more successful events.
When you choose to work in more niches, you’ll require more suppliers and vendors to meet the needs of all your clients. This is why many event planners choose a niche and develop their reputation and relationships with vendors about their niche.
What skills do you need to start an event planning service?
You don’t need to have any academic or professional qualifications to become an event planner. Often, it’s the people who’ve enjoyed organizing events earlier in their life who turn to start their event planning service. By working with an event planning company or agency first, they develop the contacts and the skills they need.
As an event planner, you’ll need to:
- Conduct market research on events and generate new leads
- Find appropriate venues for events
- Create a budget, as well as an event design
- Arrange for food and drinks
- Ensure that the décor is up to the client’s requirements
- Arrange for transport to and from the event, if necessary
- Arrange for accommodation, where necessary
- Send invitations regarding the event
- Supervise the event and coordinate with vendors and suppliers
- Conduct event evaluation to gauge success once the event is over.
If you want to start your event planning service, then consider getting yourself certified. You can get the Certified Special Event Professional or CSEP certificate provided by ISES. You can also get the Certified Meeting Planner or CMP certificate from MPI.
Some companies and individual clients do look for these certificates when hiring an event planning service. Follow these tips to build a successful event planning service for yourself.
Conclusion
If you want to start your event planning service, then consider getting industry experience first. Through your experience, you’ll be able to get all the contacts you need to establish a successful event planning business.
You can also consider getting yourself certified since some companies and clients do look for certification. Once you’ve started your event planning service, you can either work on a niche or do any event that comes your way. Focusing on a niche can be a good idea and enable you to build a trusted network of vendors and suppliers who can help you accommodate any event.
If you start your event planning service, you’ll also expose yourself to certain business risks. Consider getting event liability insurance to get financial coverage in the event you encounter common business risks. If you want to learn more about event liability insurance, then click here.
